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Learning Beatles songs


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The Beatles have always been a major influence of mine. They're one of the reasons I became a musician - I heard She Loves You when I was really young and it blew my tiny mind, then saw Help when I was 6 and living on an Army base in Germany and have never been the same since... :cool:

 

I've known how to play a bunch of their songs for a long time, (both on my own and in bands), but as mainly a keyboard player I haven't really gone as deep into their catalog as I could have. There are some that I like to play on acoustic guitar, too. However, that all kinda changed when I a) started a Beatles jam band with a bunch of music industry folks, b) bought a Telecaster and c) then got confined to quarters.

 

I've been trying to learn one or two songs a day. I typically try to play the tunes in question on both guitar and keyboards (depending on the tune, of course) and frequently attempt to sing them as well. MAN, I'm having the best fun. There is nothing quite like stepping up to a mic with an electric guitar and belting out Can't Buy Me Love....and do NOT get me started on what a buzz it is to play through Golden Slumbers. :love:

 

I played through Side One (yes, I still think of records that way) of Help! yesterday. The European version without the soundtrack stuff, I mean - Help! through to Ticket to Ride. Working on nailing all of Side One of Sgt. Pepper's, too. Did you ever try to really sing the title track of Sgt. Pepper's? You gotta dig deep, man... :D

 

Anybody else ever get lost in learning to play Beatles songs?

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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Yes, I am in a jam band that does quite a few Beatles tunes and they are probably my favorites among the others that we do. We do Golden Slumbers and I sing it. I have a somewhat high vocal range and usually end up singing all the Paul M. songs.

 

One of the most difficult Beatles songs that this jam band attempts to do and that really takes effort and time to do correctly is "I want You (she's so heavy)"

 

Enjoy your Beatles immersion Dave !

Kurzweil Forte 7, Mojo 61, Yamaha P-125,

Kronos X61, Nautilus 73

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I don't sing, but there's about 50 beatles songs in my solo piano repertoire. There is not a more sure-fired way to reach an audience, any audience. When I'm on a solo piano gig and feel like I'm starting to lose people's attention (it happens more than I'd like to admit), I always know how to get them back.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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I don't sing, but there's about 50 beatles songs in my solo piano repertoire. There is not a more sure-fired way to reach an audience, any audience. When I'm on a solo piano gig and feel like I'm starting to lose people's attention (it happens more than I'd like to admit), I always know how to get them back.

 

+1. Lose people's attention or reharm a standard more than is "acceptable." I find that with The Beatles stuff being "my generation's" music, I have that right to mess with them legitimately. So it's always home base for me.

____________________________________
Rod

Here for the gear.

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I like working on a piano-only cover of Lady Madonna. It takes some effort to get it all going right (especially since I don't usually have a lot of left-hand work going on playing in a band). It's a lot of fun, and it's a great song for piano - when I play it right!
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I recall one band--frankly, I was perhaps the best musician in the group and that is NOT a good thing!--where someone said, let's do a beatles tune, pick one we can work up quickly. "I've always wanted to do Oh Darling, that's basically a blues song!" ....oh, **** no it isn't, at least as far as the number of chords in it. Beatles songs have that ability to sound "normal" but when you find out the chords under the melodies, sometimes you think "man, that really shouldn't work there"--but it does.

 

A more modern example of a rock songwriter whose songs are like this is Chris Cornell, especially the tunes on Euphoria Morning (one of my very favorite albums).

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I like working on a piano-only cover of Lady Madonna. It takes some effort to get it all going right (especially since I don't usually have a lot of left-hand work going on playing in a band). It's a lot of fun, and it's a great song for piano - when I play it right!

I've got that one down cold. :2thu:

 

I even have a setup on my Forte that lets me bring in the the ba ba ba backing vocals (stacked under the piano in that range only, volume controlled by footpedal) using the Manhattan Transfer sample set.

 

How about some Stones song. Their catalog is as large and have a lot of great tunes.

I played in a Stones cover band a while back. I know a bunch of those...

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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I even have a setup on my Forte that lets me bring in the the ba ba ba backing vocals (stacked under the piano in that range only, volume controlled by footpedal) using the Manhattan Transfer sample set.

dB

Cool - is the Manhattan Transfer sample set built into the Forte, or an external library? I"m wondering if I can get it for my PC4.

Kurzweil PC4, Expressive E Osmose, UNO Synth Pro, Hammond B-3X on iPad, Rhodes Mark II Stage 73, ART 710-A MK4s

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Cool - is the Manhattan Transfer sample set built into the Forte, or an external library? I"m wondering if I can get it for my PC4.

Used to be an external library for older Kurz stuff, now it's in the Forte's factory wave ROM.

 

My band plays Lady Madonna, and the first time I did that with the ba ba backing vox (used to just use piano on the Forte, playing horn parts on my Kronos), everybody was really pleased because they thought we all nailed it - they had no idea what I was doing with the expression pedal because I normally use it for overall volume. :D

 

I do the same thing with horns under the piano part in Golden Slumbers (string ensemble on the Kronos). :cool:

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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I like working on a piano-only cover of Lady Madonna. It takes some effort to get it all going right (especially since I don't usually have a lot of left-hand work going on playing in a band). It's a lot of fun, and it's a great song for piano - when I play it right!
That was one of the first tunes I learned when I really got into playing the piano (Let It Be was the very first) and it became -- and remains, really -- my solo piano party piece. Won a middle school talent show performing it, and I credit that with my shift in identity from "geek" to "rock and roll guy (who is also kind of a geek)" during my early teen years...

 

The Beatles are my favorite band, and my most overwhelming influence, and that's the case for many of my musician friends. So it never ceases to collectively amaze us, every time we try to learn one of their songs that we've been listening to for our entire lives, how deceptively complex -- or deceptively simple? -- so much of their catalogue is. Every tune has at least one little twist that I would never intuit, either "oh, I can't believe it's that simple to make it sound right, I never would have thought of that" or "how the hell did they come up with that?!"

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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I play in a Beatles tribute. Make sure you get the Bible (the thousand-plus pages book with all the parts of all the songs), it's an unbelievable schoolbook on pop and rock music theory.

 

Their vocal harmonies are crazy. And Sir George Martin was a f***ng genius.

 

And yes, as others have said it's crazy how even the apparently simple songs always have some trick that surprises you.

 

When you want a good challenge, try learning the solo of In My Life. All eight gddmn bars of it :D

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When you want a good challenge, try learning the solo of In My Life. All eight gddmn bars of it :D
Is that all it is? I remember shedding it for weeks a few years ago, and I could *almost* play it at half-speed (which, to be fair, is the tempo at which George Martin played it).

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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I even have a setup on my Forte that lets me bring in the the ba ba ba backing vocals (stacked under the piano in that range only, volume controlled by footpedal) using the Manhattan Transfer sample set.

 

dB

 

You mean Take 6, right?

 

:confused:

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When you want a good challenge, try learning the solo of In My Life. All eight gddmn bars of it :D
Is that all it is? I remember shedding it for weeks a few years ago, and I could *almost* play it at half-speed (which, to be fair, is the tempo at which George Martin played it).

 

I had a wedding a few months ago, and that tune was the couple's first dance. I re-shedded the solo (I've dabbled with it for decades) and really surprised my band when I played it. LH wasn't perfect, but no one was listening that critically. I felt rightfully proud of that moment.

 

Jerry

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I don't sing, but there's about 50 beatles songs in my solo piano repertoire. There is not a more sure-fired way to reach an audience, any audience. When I'm on a solo piano gig and feel like I'm starting to lose people's attention (it happens more than I'd like to admit), I always know how to get them back.

 

+1. Lose people's attention or reharm a standard more than is "acceptable." I find that with The Beatles stuff being "my generation's" music, I have that right to mess with them legitimately. So it's always home base for me.

 

I agree. I adapt some of their tunes for solo piano... my top two are Blackbird (I do it as a medium to up tempo latin feel) and Here Comes The Sun (I try to go a bit Dave Grusin on it, if that makes sense). In a solo piano context I think these types of liberties are OK. YMMV.

 

Jerry

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There was a fearlessness to their writing that was born partially of being rich and invincible, partially of being insanely internally competitive, partially of being right in the midst of the mainstreaming of the inane and avant-garde, and partially of being populated by four restless, mentally ill disaffected souls with a congenital and gleeful lack of respect.

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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I even have a setup on my Forte that lets me bring in the the ba ba ba backing vocals (stacked under the piano in that range only, volume controlled by footpedal) using the Manhattan Transfer sample set.

 

You mean Take 6, right?

 

:confused:

I seem to remember having both in that ancient vast (okay, pun intended) collection of Kurz discs and drives I've amassed over the years...but for some reason it stuck in my head that the ones in the ROM were MT. Now that you mention Take 6 though, I believe you're right.

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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You might like brother Jazzooo & Co's version of RAIN up there in Shameless Plugs (under "New Mixes").

 

There are so many great Beatles tunes to explore. Some of my favourites are early ones ie: Yes It Is, If I Fell, You're Gonna Lose That Girl ... contain deceptive key changes.

____________________________________
Rod

Here for the gear.

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I like working on a piano-only cover of Lady Madonna. It takes some effort to get it all going right (especially since I don't usually have a lot of left-hand work going on playing in a band). It's a lot of fun, and it's a great song for piano - when I play it right!

I've got that one down cold. :2thu:

 

I even have a setup on my Forte that lets me bring in the the ba ba ba backing vocals (stacked under the piano in that range only, volume controlled by footpedal) using the Manhattan Transfer sample set.

dB

My band plays Lady Madonna, and the first time I did that with the ba ba backing vox (used to just use piano on the Forte, playing horn parts on my Kronos), everybody was really pleased because they thought we all nailed it - they had no idea what I was doing with the expression pedal because I normally use it for overall volume. :D

dB

Very nice! I guess I have some more work to do! :laugh:

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Yeah, it's so hard to put a Beatles song in the same place they did, most people I know who cover them choose to try and do something different.

 

Here's a version of It's Only Love I did a few years back. I went with a sort of Springsteen vibe...except the chorus, where I stole the groove (specifically the drum part) directly from the Genesis tune Home By The Sea.

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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I like working on a piano-only cover of Lady Madonna. It takes some effort to get it all going right (especially since I don't usually have a lot of left-hand work going on playing in a band). It's a lot of fun, and it's a great song for piano - when I play it right!
That was one of the first tunes I learned when I really got into playing the piano (Let It Be was the very first) and it became -- and remains, really -- my solo piano party piece.

Yes, exactly, that's my intention too. Since I don't practice much solo piano stuff, I'd like to have a few things up my sleeve (namely, Lady Madonna and Linus and Lucy) to call on if somebody says, "oh, you play the piano, let's hear something." Unfortunately, I don't even practice these enough to be able to play them out of the blue. Fortunately, no one ever asks! :laugh:

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Yeah, it's so hard to put a Beatles song in the same place they did, most people I know who cover them choose to try and do something different.

 

Here's a version of It's Only Love I did a few years back. I went with a sort of Springsteen vibe...except the chorus, where I stole the groove (specifically the drum part) directly from the Genesis tune Home By The Sea.

 

dB

Yeah, you can definitely hear both the Beatles and Springsteen in there - very nice!

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I have friends in Fresno who started a Beatles tribute band. 4 pieces - all good singers and guitar, bass, keys, drums.

 

Every six months or so they would do one show and sell out. They'd play an entire album all the way through. They didn't look like the Beatles but they sounded like them.

 

Some things that sound simple are tricky, the groove on Come Together has been hosed by many attempters!

 

And it sounds simple but try and get the sound of Please Please Me? Yikes!!!!

 

If and when I do a Beatles cover I just play it like me. No sense in pretending.

 

My all time favorie cover of a Beatles tune, bar none -

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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saw Help when I was 6 and living on an Army base in Germany

 

OT but I can't help it:

 

What army base? I was born when my dad was stationed in Nuremburg. I don't remember meeting you, but then again, we departed Germany before I turned 1.

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My band played In My Life a few years ago, but we've since dropped it. The "played at half speed" story...seriously? I played the harpsi part and it's not that hard or fast. And that's not bragging because I'm not that good. But the band is; we nailed the vocals!

Kurzweil PC4

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I was in a band that performed side 2 of Abbey Road including the 14 second pause before Her Majesty. A ridiculous amount of fun.

9 Moog things, 3 Roland things, 2 Hammond things and a computer with stuff on it

 

 

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The "played at half speed" story...seriously? I played the harpsi part and it's not that hard or fast.!

 

Yup, it is certainly true... read about it first in the very completest The Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewinsohn. As an example, it's not a harpsichord, it's a piano. But recording at half-speed and then speeding it back up changed the timbre...

 

George Martin was not a pianist per se, and he had trouble getting it right at the tempo.

 

Funny, when I went looking for a source to quote for my reply I found this video, and thought it would be an explanation from George himself about how he did it:

 

In My Life solo

 

Jerry

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